The coordination power of distributed computing models (part 2)

Eliezer Gafni

UCLA

Eli Gafni received his first degree from the Technion, second from UIUC, and third from MIT, all in E.E. He was involved with the Internet in the early days when it consisted of only few nodes. Unlike his contemporaries in MIT, of which quite a few went on to become few hundred times Internet millionaires, he joined UCLA computer science department and abstracted the Internet to the point that he became even too theoretical for that discipline.

He received the Presidential Young Investigator award when he was young and promising. He still promises but ain't young any more. His claim to fame is for missing on the Godel award, for lack of Journal Version, leading one of the 3 teams which found the relationship between distributed computing and algebraic topology.

Nevertheless, with tenure, he is still a Professor at UCLA, holding forth that intellectual fun or the ability to roam perhaps aimlessly through intellectually challenging roads is the reason to be in university rather than Industry. He does not envy the millionaires, he is only partially responsible for the sorry financial state of the UC system, and most of his publications are still missing a Journal Version.